Jeremiah 16:1-18

YAHWEH spoke to me again and said: “You are not to marry or have children in this land. For this is what I, YAHWEH, have to say concerning any children that may be born in this place and concerning their mothers and fathers in this land: They will die of deadly diseases. No one will mourn for them or bury them; their bodies will lie like dung on the ground. They will be consumed by the sword and by food shortages, and the birds and beasts will feast on their corpses.” For YAHWEH says: “You are not to enter a house of mourning or go there to lament and to console them. For I have lifted my favor off that people,” declares YAHWEH. “I will no longer show them my kindness and compassion. The least and the greatest alike will die in this land. They will not be buried. No one will mourn for them, cut themselves, or shave their heads to show their grief. No one is to offer food to people in mourning, to comfort them in their loss. Even if it is their fathers or mothers who have died, do not give them a cup of consolation. Nor are you to go into a house where people are feasting, to enjoy their festivities. For here is what YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will silence in this land the joyful shout of bride and bridegroom, the sounds of gladness and laughter. It will happen in your lifetime, before your very eyes. “And when you prophesy all these words to that people, and they ask you, ‘Why has YAHWEH decreed all this great evil against us? What is the wrong and the sin that we have committed against YAHWEH our God?’ Answer them, ‘Because your ancestors walked away from me, declares YAHWEH, and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They abandoned me and failed to keep my instruction. Yet you have acted even worse than your ancestors. Each of you follow the stubborn desires of your evil hearts and refuse to listen to me. Therefore, I will fling you out of this land to a land that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you will serve other gods, day and night to your heart’s content, for I will have no pity for you.’ ” “Listen, a time is coming,” declares YAHWEH, “when it will no more be said, ‘As surely as YAHWEH lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt,’ but rather, ‘As surely as YAHWEH lives, who brought the Israelites back from the land of the north and from all the lands to which he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their homeland, which I gave to their ancestors. “Behold, I will summon many fishermen,” declares YAHWEH, “and they will fish them out. After that, I will summon many hunters, and they will hunt them out of every mountain and hill and chase them out of their hiding places in the rocks. For I see everything they do. They are not hidden from my presence, nor does their guilt escape my gaze. First, I will pay them back in full— even double for their evil and their sins. They have defiled my land and made it unfit for me because of their dead, detestable idols and have filled the land I have chosen for my own with their abominations.”